Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha
Akhil Bhārat Hindū Mahāsabhā is a Hindu Nationalist l organization, was originally founded in1882 in lahore. Brief history of Hindu Mahasabha is that Hindu Sabha’s sprang up in Lahore in1882 and by 1906 a Hindu Sabha was established in almost ineach district of the Punjab. In 1915, the all India HinduMahasabha held its first session in (Hardwar) UP.It's interesting to know that Muslim League was founded in 1906 in Dhaka. Several Congress leaders until 1930’s continued to participate in theannual session of the Mahasabha. 1907 to counter the Muslim League and the so-called secular Indian National Congress.It is no use concealing the fact that the Indian National Congress is pre-dominantly a Hindu organization. However, in the early years, it could not exert much influence on the general Hindu populace.The first All India Hindu Mahasabha Conference was organized at Hardwar in 1915. From the very beginning, it was dominated mostly by the upper class Hiindu gentry.The Lucknow Pact, the Mopla atrocities on Hindus in Malabar, the Multan & Kohat riots by the Pathan fanatics, all opened the eyes of the Hindu masses. They felt the need of Hindu sangathan. During the Non-cooperation and other Congress Movements, it did not participate as a political organization. In order to protect Hindu interests, the Mahasabha contested the elections held under Govt, of India Acts and entered the legislatures. Apart from political activities, it was also engaged in various social welfare programmes aimed at the unification of the entire Hindu community. The Mahasabha vehemently opposed the Communal Award, the Poona Pact and the Constitution of India Act(1935). In the late 1930s the Mahasabha tried to emerge as a political alternative to the Congress.It offered support to the British war-efforts during the World War ll. It also sharply reacted against the Pakistan Movement aimed at vivisecting India. Soon after India's Independence, and the subsequent assassination of Gandhi, a good number of Hindu Mahasabhaites joined Bharatiya Jana Sangh under the leadership of S.P. Mukherjee, who had left Hindu Mahasabha and joined hands with the RSS to float a political party under the control and supervision of RSS. Mukherjee had left Mahasabha after his proposal to allow Muslims to gain membership was turned down by the followers of V.D. Savarkar. The relationship between Savarkar's Mahasabha and RSS was strained mainly because the then chief of RSS, M.S. Golwalkar, felt overshadowed by the influence of Savarkar over the Hindu populace. Officially Mahasabha is still a distinct political entity but its election symbol has been withheld as it has not been getting enough votes. So now the party fights elections on different symbols in different constituencies. Although it remained a relatively small political party, the Mahasabha's members at various times included pre-eminent Indian political leaders such as Madan Mohan Malaviya, founder of the Benaras Hindu University; Dr. K. B. Hedgewar, founder of the Hindu Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the former chief minister of the Central Provinces and Berar; Syama Prasad Mookerjee of Bengal, who served as Central Minister in Nehru's cabinet; and Narayan Bhaskar Khare, who served as the Mahasabha's president from 1949 to 1951.1 The Mahasabha's influence was hindered by its opposition to the widely-popular civil disobedience campaigns led by the Congress Party to achieve Indian independence from British rule. The restrictions imposed by the British authorities on the political activities of its leader Vinayak Damodar Savarkar also impaired its development.Jinnah has close relations with Savarkar and Tilak.The demand of partition was first openly announced by Llala lajpat rai in his news paper "the tribune" published from punjab.At that time1925 he was the president of Hindu maha sabha. Due to the rise of the Muslim League's campaign for a separate Muslim state of Pakistan and growing acrimony between Hindus and Muslims, the Mahasabha increasingly became home to radical Hindu activists. With the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan in 1947, Savarkar and the Mahasabha laid blame on the Congress leaders, especially Mahatma Gandhi, for appeasing the Muslims and making too many concessions it considered detrimental to Hindu interests. On January 30, 1948, Gandhi was assassinated by Nathuram Godse. Subsequent police investigations revealed that Godse and his confederates were members of the Hindu Mahasabha, and close confidants of Savarkar. Although Savarkar himself was acquitted of involvement by the courts, the conviction of the rest led to a major popular backlash against the Hindu Mahasabha. A good number of Hindu Mahasabhaites joined the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, founded in 1951 under the leadership of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who had joined with the RSS. Mookerjee had left Mahasabha after his proposal to allow Muslims to gain membership was turned down by Savarkar. In 1980, the BJS transformed into the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is today India's largest party aside from the Congress. The Hindu Mahasabha continued to survive on the fringes of Indian politics. Bishan Chandra Seth of Shahjahanpur was elected twice to the Indian Parliament from Etah and was one of the longest serving parliamentarians from Hindu Mahasabha. Another long-serving parliamentarian from Sabha was Mahant Avaindnath. Category:Non-governmental organizations Category: